Richmond County Board of Election precinct plan raises some concerns

A proposed precinct plan that would mean new polling places for about 13,000 Richmond County voters raised some concerns Tues­day about the number of elderly and minority voters affected by the proposal.

Augusta Commissioner Bill Fennoy said he hoped the Board of Elections would consider the high percentage of minority voters that will have new polling places under the proposal. Before the board gives its final approval, Fennoy said he’d like to see revisions.

“We need to look at this plan and see if we can come up with something different where so many African-Americans aren’t affected by the change,” he said at a public hearing at the Augusta-Richmond County Public Library.

Fennoy has said that about 9,000 of the voters being relocated to new polling places are black. For the first time in decades, the changes won’t be required to have preclearance by the U.S. Department of Justice, after the Supreme Court overruled part of the Voting Rights Act in June. About 10 people attended the meeting Tuesday.

The proposed plan was developed to accommodate voters as more choose to vote before Election Day, said Board of Elections Executive Director Lynn Bailey. In the 2012 presidential election, 31,118 voters cast ballots early. The changes include adding an advance voting site at Diamond Lakes Regional Park, for a total of four locations countywide, and consolidating the 50 Election Day sites down to 44.

In response to Fennoy’s complaint, Board of Election secretary L.C. Myles, an appointee of the local Democratic Party, said the changes affect a high number of minorities because Richmond County has a “minority majority.” Minorities were also significantly affected by the 2011 redistricting.

Some concerned about elderly voters affected by the proposed closing of polls at St. John’s Towers and Peabody Apartments, including Augusta NAACP President Charles Smith, said the community would have to help transport elderly and disabled voters to polls.

Bailey said because the Augusta Housing Authority operates Peabody Apartments, transportation could be available.

Despite the Justice Department changes, elections officials said they are maintaining a transparent process. The precinct plan is available on the Board of Elections Web site and public comment is welcome for three more weeks.

The board anticipates voting on the plan, which would effect 2014 elections, in late November or early December, Bailey said.

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If I understand correctly that Bill Fennoy is worried about the minority
voters in Richmond County, then he must be referring to white voters
because the blacks are the majority in Richmond County, exactly what
the supreme court ruled! I believe that the minority whites should have
other minority programs and the majority should not be able to participate. It seems to me that the legal system should check into the programs that were setup for minorities in Richmond county and let the
minority whites into these programs and the majority blacks should be
removed from such.

Commissioner Fennoy is criticizing instead of pitching in to help. There are too many small precincts in Augusta. Staffing those small precincts is wasteful. Combining small precincts into larger ones will save taxpayers money; and everyone still gets to vote.

If someone does not have transportation to the polls, call the NAACP or Lowell Greenbaum. Call a friend. Or, you can do what I do, request an absentee ballot by mail. Sure, it will cost the price of a stamp, but that's less than the gasoline you would spend.

Just about everybody knows that African Americans are not the minority in Richmond County. It's been that way for a while now. Why try to fool the public into thinking that minorities are being hurt by this cost saving plan to reduce spending? Trying to get a racism argument going again? With the possible exception of yourself the current Commission has avoided racist arguments. As a minority Caucasian I resent your effort. Leave the Board of Elections alone and stick to important county business.

There are a lot of senior citizens that live there that get out and vote. How are they going to get them to the polls andback. My mother is on oxygen and there are a lot of people there that aren't as mobile as they once were. Are they going to disenfranchise them?

Did Mr. Fennoy jump up on the table, throw a chair, scream or throw something? So what did he do to make the reporter and these posters think he was complaining other than ask questions which was the purpose of the meeting?

The reporter could have said, "in response to his 'concern'" rather than "complaint" since there was nothing in the article to support that he was complaining.